She was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family, who she believes will kill her because she renounced Islam.

The head of Thailand's immigration police said on Monday that Alqunun would be able to enter the country under the protection of the UN refugee agency the UNHCR on Monday.

The UNHCR is evaluating her case and claims for asylum status.

The head of Thailand's immigration police said Monday that an 18-year-old Saudi woman who was stopped in Bangkok as she was trying to travel to Australia for asylum to escape alleged abuse by her family will not be sent anywhere against her wishes.

The woman, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, was allowed to temporarily enter Thailand under the protection of the UN refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The evaluation of her claims for asylum is expected to take at least five to seven days.

Thai immigration police released photos of Alqunun after she left the room at a Bangkok airport hotel where she had awaiting news. Where she would stay in the Thai capital was not announced.

Alqunun had stayed in the room while sending out desperate pleas for help over social media. She began posting on Twitter late Saturday after her passport was taken away when she arrived in Bangkok on a flight from Kuwait.

"As of now, she does not wish to go back and we will not force her. She won't be sent anywhere tonight," Surachate said at one of several news conferences at the airport.

"She fled hardship. Thailand is a land of smiles," he said. "We will not send anyone to die. We will not do that. We will adhere to human rights under the rule of law."

On Twitter, Alqunun had written of being in "real danger" if forced to return to her family in Saudi Arabia, and has claimed in media interviews that she could be killed. She told the BBC that she had renounced Islam and is fearful of her father's retaliation.

Alqunun told Human Rights Watch that she was fleeing beatings and death threats from her male relatives who forced her to remain in her room for six months for cutting her hair.

Alqunun's planned forced departure Monday morning was averted as she stayed in her hotel room, with furniture piled up against the door, photos she posted online showed.

Her plight mirrors that of other Saudi women who in recent years have turned to social media to amplify their calls for help while trying to flee abusive families.

Alqunun's Twitter account attracted more than 50,000 followers in less than 48 hours and her story grabbed the attention of foreign governments as well as the UN refugee agency.

Her pleas for asylum have also brought international attention to the obstacles women face in Saudi Arabia under male guardianship laws, which require that women, regardless of their age, have the consent of a male relative — usually a father or husband — to travel, obtain a passport, or marry.

They also show the limits of reforms being pushed by Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman as he struggles to repair damage to his reputation after the grisly killing three months ago of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul.

Alqunun is under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Thailand should give Alqunun back her passport and let her continue her journey to Australia.

"She has a valid Australian visa," he said. "The key thing is she should not be sent back to Saudi Arabia, she should not be sent back into harm's way."

"The fact is she didn't have any money," he said. "She intended to come here and didn't have any visa to go to Australia. So we have to state the facts here. But we will provide assistance nonetheless."

Surachate later alleged that Kuwait Airways had been at fault for allowing Alqunun to board her flight to Thailand without having proper travel documents.

Comment was not immediately available from the airline. Alqunun had been traveling with her family in Kuwait, from where she may have chosen to flee because it has less restrictions than her homeland on women's travel.

For runaway Saudi women, fleeing can be a matter of life and death. They are often doing so to escape male relatives.

In 2017, Dina Ali Lasloom triggered a firestorm online when she was stopped en route to Australia, where she had planned to seek asylum. She was forced to return to Saudi Arabia and was not publicly heard from again, according to activists tracking her whereabouts.

Despite efforts by the Saudi government to curtail the scope of male guardianship laws, women who attempt to flee their families in Saudi Arabia have few good options inside the kingdom.

According to Human Rights Watch, women are often either pressured to reconcile with their families, are sent to shelters where their movement is restricted or face arrest for disobeying their legal guardian.

Alqunun has said she was tricked into giving up her passport upon arrival in Bangkok by a man she has variously identified as a Kuwait Airways employee or a Saudi Embassy official. She said Saudi and Thai officials then told her she would be returned to Kuwait on Monday, where her father and brother were awaiting her.

While the Saudi Embassy in Thailand denied that Saudi authorities were involved in attempts to stop Alqunun from traveling to Australia, the kingdom has in the past forcibly returned its citizens home.

Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Bangkok, Abdullah al-Shuaibi, was quoted in Saudi media as saying that Alqunun was stopped by Thai authorities because she did not appear to have a return ticket, a hotel reservation or itinerary to show she was a tourist.

He said the Saudi Embassy has no authority to stop anyone at the airport and that such a decision would rest with Thai officials.

"She was stopped by airport authorities because she violated Thai laws," he was quoted as saying in Sabq, a state-aligned Saudi news website. "The embassy is only monitoring the situation."

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Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press journalists Tassanee Vejpongsa and Grant Peck in Bangkok and Sam McNeil in Sydney contributed to this report.